Flying or at least ATTEMPTING to
by LiTtLE BiT oF cAiN
Summary: Hermione confronts one of her fears. Written in less than forty minutes, cos that's how I roll


Hermione POV

I sighed in anger, why the hell didn't Harry and Ronald understand the need for studying and homework! It was maddening. As a result of their carelessness and blatant disregard for learning, I was in the library, yet again, doing their homework, and their assignments. It had been like this since first year when I had first met them, and unbeknownst to their thick-skulls, I hated it! I heard a snicker from behind me and I turned around sharply. None other than the Draco Malfoy stood behind me.

"Acting as a slave now Granger?" he asked with his tell-tale smirk.

"No, actually Malfoy," I replied. "I was just getting ready to go outside?" Even to me my voice sounded uncertain.

"Oh really?" He said sounding amused. "And what are you planning to do outside?"

I stared at him blankly. He had me there.

"She's letting me teach her to fly of course!" An enthusiastic voice said. Both Malfoy and I turned to look at the new arrival. It was some girl who I partially remembered from one of my classes standing there. She was also a Slytherin.

"You?" Malfoy said shocked. "You're going to teach the mudblood to fly?"

The girl glared at him. "Yes Malfoy, apparently you can't figure that out." The girl walked over and took my arm to drag me out of the library.

"I hate flying!" I whispered to her angrily as she dragged me away. I tried to get free, I really did, but she was a hell of a lot stronger than she looked. She had dark red hair and pale blue eyes.

"I know," she whispered back bending down slightly to whisper in my ear quietly. "But you really need to learn some time soon!"

Footsteps followed out progress from the library, through the school and to the Quidditch Pitch. Malfoy seemed to have nothing better to do than to watch me humiliate myself on a broomstick. The girl, whose name I didn't yet know, left me in the middle of the pitch as she went to go and get two brooms. She came back with a broom that looked like Harry's (A firebolt guys!) and another one that looked more like Ron's (A cleansweep).

"Here ya go!" she said and gave me the Ron broom.

"Who are you again?" I asked suddenly.

The girl smirked. "I am Violet, and you are Hermione. I am also your flight instructor." Her face was serious as she told me this, until right at the end when she cracked up laughing. "Okay! Hold your broom horizontally beside you a bit lower than waist height," she began to instruct. Against my better judgment, I did what she said. The broom next to me seemed like the worst, and most untrustworthy thing in the world at that moment. I knew I wasn't fat, but that still didn't stop me from thinking that the twig wouldn't hold me up. "Good!" the girl, Violet, said as she watched me place my broom next to me. "Now swing your leg over it so that you are standing over it," I complied with what she said and realized that she too was going through the steps as she instructed me. "Okay, this is where you need to trust the broom, ok?" she asked me and looked at me asi if trying to make me trust the broom.

It took a second to get my mindset right and then I nodded at her. "Got it." I said with determination. Violet smiled at me reassuringly. I still had no idea why she would be helping me, a Gryffindor, let alone a Mudblood.

"Now, hold onto the broom with your hands tightly. Then, once you have a grip, kick aganst the ground as if you are jumping. Once you do that, grip onto your broom with your knees as well as your hands. Like this," she said and rose into the air slowly. It didn't look as hard as it had five years ago when I had been a first year.

"Okay," I said shakily. Violet gave me another reassuring smile, and the next thing I knew, I was kicking against the ground like I did during a jump and holding onto the broom as if my liofe depended on it. The broom shook a bit, and then it leveled out about a metre or two from the ground. I was in the air! I hadn't even got nearly this far when I had been a first year.

"Okay, good." Violet said. I looked up at her and saw her watching me with a grin on her face. "now you need to learn to move around.

"What!" I said loudly in shock.

"it's easy," Violet said. "You've just got to lean forward slightly to get speed and move, and then you move your body to turn. Watch." With that, Violet went soaring down the pitch, bent over her broom. When she got to the goal hoops, she leaned slightly to the left so that she turned around, and flew back. "Now you go." She said grinning.

I nodded and leaned over the broom slightly, I still didn't really trust it. The second I leaned forwards, the broom started moving, and it wasn't actually as terrifying as I thought that it would be. I leant forward a bit more to go even faster, and a while after I got to the goal hoops. I leant slightly to the right and turned around to face Violet again. I found that I had a smile to match hers on my face. I flew back to her as fast as I dared and sat up straighter to slow down the broom before stopping.

"Still hate flying?" Violet asked sounding like she was trying not to laugh.

"Maybe?" I said dragging out the word. Violet chuckled.

"If you say so," she said grinning.

A slow clapping came from the stands and I turned and saw Malfoy there watching. "He's not as bad as he seems," A voice said quietly. I turned and saw Violet looking at Malfoy. Most of him is what society should see, the whole, carry on the Malfoy name thing, Ya know? He never really had a childhood. I lived next door to him," she explained. "We've been good friends for a while. His mother tried to give him things, to let him have fun, to take him places, such as the zoo, or a park, or even play Quidditch with him outside. His father however, didn't allow it. He'd shut them in the house, they barely ever left unless there was a ball at another pureblood families house. I think, I was the only so called friend he had. He uses derogatory terms such as Mudblood, and all the rest, as a way to hide who he actually is from those his parents know."

"Having fun telling my life story?" a voice said.

Violet and I looked down to see Malfoy looking at us.

"As a matter of fact, yes," Violet said. Malfoy rose up on a broom I hadn't seen him carrying and rose to our level.

"My father wasn't exactly great, eh Hermione?" Malfoy said smirking.

"I guess not Malfoy," I said, unsure of where this was going.

"Draco, is my name, not Malfoy." Mal-.. Draco said.

"Okay, Draco," I said. None of this seemed real.

"You should come flying with Draco and I at night sometime, you might enjoy it," Violet suggested. Draco looked at Violet, and it seemed they shared some unspoken communication. I looked at Draco to see if he was okay with it, he nodded reassuringly.

"Sure," I said allowing myself a grin.

"We meet in the Entrance Hall at eight tonight," Violet said. "Be there."

I went to nod and tell her that I would be, but I was interrupted.

"Hermione!" Harry's voice rang out over the pitch. I was so shocked that I let go of the broom and felt myself fall. I couldn't stop the scream that came out. The next second both of my arms were being gripped from either side.

"Hold, the broom Hermione," Draco hissed, "not let go."

Violet chuckled, "she wanted to see her boyfriend."

Violet and Draco must have dived to catch me, then what she said sunk in. "Harry isn't my boyfriend."

"I was referring to the Weasel," Violet snarled.

Both Draco and her slowly descended to the pitch and let me go before flying a small ways off and dismounting their brooms. They both returned towards me and stood either saide of me. Sort of like personal bodyguards.

"Hello Malfoy," Harry snarled.

I sent Harry a warning look, Ron looked really pissed off too, just like Harry.

"What's your problem!" Ron yelled shoving Malfoy. "You pushed her off her broom!"

"No he didn't!" Violet yelled at Ron standing between him and Draco. "Potter's loud exclamation made her lose grip, not Draco."

"I bet you helped knock her off her broom." Ron said snarling at her.

"You okay Hermione?" Harry asked next to me quietly. I nodded. "Did Draco or the other person knock you off?" I shook my head. "Why are you with two Slytherins anyway?" Harry asked

"Violet was teaching me to fly," I explained quietly. "I don't actually mind it. And Draco isn't as bad as you all think." I trailed off.

Harry nodded. "I'll take your word for it," he said. "But I am not about to get all buddy buddy with Malfoy."

I laughed. "I didn't exactly expect you to"

Harry's eyes showed amusement and then he strode forward to break up the fight going on between Ron and the Slytherins. Ron was trying to punch both of them where-ever he could, and the two of them were dodging each of his blows quite successfully. Harry grabbed Ron from behind and whispered something into his ear, before walking off. Ron threw one final glance at the Slytherins and left.

Draco and Violet came over.

"You still up for tonight?" Violet asked grinning.

Draco looked at me expectantly.

"Sure thing," I said.

Both Slytherins nodded before leaving. I stood in the pitch a while longer. I had no idea what the hell had happened since I left the library…


End file.
